The SpaceX Crew Dragon trunk was secured to the spacecraft on Thursday, April 30, 2020, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, in preparation for the Demo-2 launch with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley to the International Space Station for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Crew Dragon will carry Behnken and Hurley atop a Falcon 9 rocket, returning crew launches to the space station from U.S. soil for the first time since the Space Shuttle Program ended in 2011.
The Integrated LCRD Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T) has been loaded into Dragon’s unpressurized spacecraft trunk. SpaceX will deliver the payload to the International Space Station during its 29th commercial resupply services mission. Launch is targeted for Sunday, Nov. 5 at 10:01 p.m. EST.
The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) mission instrument (right) sits in the "trunk" that will travel aboard SpaceX's 25th cargo resupply mission – planned for June 7, 2022 – to the International Space Station. This image was taken May 3, 2022, at SpaceX's Dragonland facility in Florida. Developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, EMIT will map the world's mineral-dust sources, gathering information about particle color and composition as it orbits over the planet's dry, sparsely vegetated regions. After being mounted on the space station, EMIT will collect measurements of 10 important surface minerals – hematite, goethite, illite, vermiculite, calcite, dolomite, montmorillonite, kaolinite, chlorite, and gypsum – in arid regions between 50-degree south and north latitudes in Africa, Asia, North and South America, and Australia. The data EMIT collects will help scientists better understand the role of airborne dust particles in heating and cooling Earth's atmosphere on global and regional scales. The white covering will prevent the spread of the heat the instrument generates, keeping it from affecting the space station and nearby instruments. EMIT will be one of two pieces of equipment transported to the space station in the external cargo "trunk" on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. The other (left) is a Battery Charge/Discharge Unit. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25148
Pictured is the Communications room in the RAC building, Research Analysis Center. This is the hub for the CATV and Lynk system and also the telephone system as seen from the twisted pair wires. The test gear LAN 450 is on the floor and is a spectrum analyzer made specifically for CATV. The Large boxes on the wall are Trunk amps and the smaller boxes are Splitters or combiners.
This image of the Elephant Trunk nebula from NASA Wide-field Survey Explorer shows clouds of dust and gas being pushed and eroded by a massive star. The bright trunk of the nebula near the center is an especially dense cloud.
The Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) mission instrument (left) sits in the "trunk" that will travel aboard SpaceX's 25th cargo resupply mission – planned for June 7, 2022 – to the International Space Station. This image was taken May 3, 2022, at SpaceX's Dragonland facility in Florida. Developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, EMIT will map the world's mineral-dust sources, gathering information about particle color and composition as it orbits over the planet's dry, sparsely vegetated regions. After being mounted on the space station, EMIT will collect measurements of 10 important surface minerals – hematite, goethite, illite, vermiculite, calcite, dolomite, montmorillonite, kaolinite, chlorite, and gypsum – in arid regions between 50-degree south and north latitudes in Africa, Asia, North and South America, and Australia. The data EMIT collects will help scientists better understand the role of airborne dust particles in heating and cooling Earth's atmosphere on global and regional scales. The mirror-like side radiator panels are designed to keep the instrument's interior electronics and optics at a low enough temperature to work optimally. The white covering will prevent the spread of the heat the instrument generates, keeping it from affecting the space station and nearby instruments. EMIT will be one of two pieces of equipment transported to the space station in the external cargo "trunk" on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. The other (left) is a Battery Charge/Discharge Unit. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25149
The International Docking Adapter 3, a critical component for future crewed missions to the International Space Station, is carefully packed away in the unpressurized “trunk” section of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at the SpaceX facility on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on June 19. It will launch to the orbiting laboratory in July on the company’s 18th commercial resupply mission. The adapter will support future U.S. crewed vehicles visiting the station.
The International Docking Adapter 3, a critical component for future crewed missions to the International Space Station, is carefully packed away in the unpressurized “trunk” section of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at the SpaceX facility on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on June 19. It will launch to the orbiting laboratory in July on the company’s 18th commercial resupply mission. The adapter will support future U.S. crewed vehicles visiting the station.
The International Docking Adapter 3, a critical component for future crewed missions to the International Space Station, is carefully packed away in the unpressurized “trunk” section of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at the SpaceX facility on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on June 19. It will launch to the orbiting laboratory in July on the company’s 18th commercial resupply mission. The adapter will support future U.S. crewed vehicles visiting the station.
The International Docking Adapter 3, a critical component for future crewed missions to the International Space Station, is carefully packed away in the unpressurized “trunk” section of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at the SpaceX facility on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on June 19. It will launch to the orbiting laboratory in July on the company’s 18th commercial resupply mission. The adapter will support future U.S. crewed vehicles visiting the station.
The International Docking Adapter 3, a critical component for future crewed missions to the International Space Station, is carefully packed away in the unpressurized “trunk” section of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at the SpaceX facility on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on June 19. It will launch to the orbiting laboratory in July on the company’s 18th commercial resupply mission. The adapter will support future U.S. crewed vehicles visiting the station.
The International Docking Adapter 3, a critical component for future crewed missions to the International Space Station, is carefully packed away in the unpressurized “trunk” section of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at the SpaceX facility on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on June 19. It will launch to the orbiting laboratory in July on the company’s 18th commercial resupply mission. The adapter will support future U.S. crewed vehicles visiting the station.
The International Docking Adapter 3, a critical component for future crewed missions to the International Space Station, is carefully packed away in the unpressurized “trunk” section of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at the SpaceX facility on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on June 19. It will launch to the orbiting laboratory in July on the company’s 18th commercial resupply mission. The adapter will support future U.S. crewed vehicles visiting the station.
iss073e0343806 (July 15, 2025) --- The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying the Axiom Mission 4 crew is pictured from the International Space Station separating from its trunk and reentering Earth's atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean near the coast of California at approximately 12:20 a.m. local time. The streak is the plasma trail caused by the intense friction between Dragon's heat shield and the atmospheric gases as the spacecraft penetrates the atmosphere.
This archival image from 2003 captured by NASA Spitzer Space Telescope captured the Elephant Trunk Nebula, an elongated dark globule within the emission nebula IC 1396 in the constellation of Cepheus.
This photo shows the Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science OPALS stowed in the SpaceX Dragon trunk on April 22, 2014, two days after docking with the International Space Station.
NASA Optical PAyload for Lasercomm Science OPALS is seen in the SpaceX Dragon trunk following second stage separation of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on April 18, 2014.
This image from NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft shows numerous branching ridges with various degrees of sinuosity. These branching forms resemble tributaries funneling and draining into larger channel trunks towards the upper portion of the scene. The raised relief of these branching ridges suggests that these are ancient channels are inverted due to lithification and cementation of the riverbed sediment, which made it more resistant to erosion than the surrounding material. Wind-blown bedforms are abundant and resemble small ridges that are aligned in an approximately north-south direction. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20006
iss067e284423 (Aug. 19, 2022) --- The SpaceX Dragon resupply ship, with its solar panel-covered trunk, is pictured before undocking from the Harmony module's forward port on the International Space Station.
A tree trunk structure photographed in the La Selva region of the Costa Rican rain forest as part of NASA's AirSAR 2004 Mesoamerica campaign. AirSAR 2004 Mesoamerica is a three-week expedition by an international team of scientists that will use an all-weather imaging tool, called the Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AirSAR) which is located onboard NASA's DC-8 airborne laboratory. Scientists from many parts of the world including NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are combining ground research done in several areas in Central America with NASA's AirSAR technology to improve and expand on the quality of research they are able to do. NASA's AIRSAR technolgy provides two essential elements to the ground-based scientists. First, it tests and provides accurate measurements of the forest structure. Secondly, AirSAR can study a larger area of the forest versus the smaller area that can be tested and plotted by the ground scientists. It also provides a unique one-of-a-kind system of measurement that obtains important information for the scientists, such as where forests are located and what exactly is in them.
A unique tree trunk photographed in La Selva region of the Costa Rican rain forest as part of NASA's AirSAR 2004 Mesoamerica campaign. AirSAR 2004 Mesoamerica is a three-week expedition by an international team of scientists that will use an all-weather imaging tool, called the Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AirSAR) which is located onboard NASA's DC-8 airborne laboratory. Scientists from many parts of the world including NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are combining ground research done in several areas in Central America with NASA's AirSAR technology to improve and expand on the quality of research they are able to do. NASA's AIRSAR technolgy provides two essential elements to the ground-based scientists. First, it tests and provides accurate measurements of the forest structure. Secondly, AirSAR can study a larger area of the forest versus the smaller area that can be tested and plotted by the ground scientists. It also provides a unique one-of-a-kind system of measurement that obtains important information for the scientists, such as where forests are located and what exactly is in them.
iss064e030014 (February 8, 2021) --- NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Victor Glover work on configuration and opening of Nanoracks Bishop Airlock attached to the Tranquility module. Launched in the trunk of a SpaceX Dragon capsule, Bishop enables more commercial research, satellite deployments, and cargo operations outside in the vacuum of space.
iss066e125273 (Jan. 23, 2022) --- The solar panel-covered, unpressurized trunk of the SpaceX Cargo Dragon resupply ship is pictured behind an antenna on the International Space Station during its undocking from the Harmony module's space-facing port.
iss066e125299 (Jan. 23, 2022) --- The bright, white pressurized capsule of the SpaceX Cargo Dragon resupply ship with its nose cone open nearly obscures its dark solar panel-covered, unpressurized trunk as the vehicle departs the International Space Station.
iss056e077457 (July 4, 2018) --- A star-lit sky and Earth's atmospheric glow are the backdrop as the Canadarm2 robotic arm, with its Dextre robotic hand attached, is poised to begin extracting cargo from the rear of the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft, or it's trunk.
iss068e044261 (Jan. 31, 2023) --- Flight support equipment is pictured descending toward the Earth's atmosphere after being jettisoned from the grips of the Canadarm2 robotic arm. The flight hardware secured a pair of roll-out solar arrays inside SpaceX Dragon cargo ship’s trunk during its ascent to orbit and rendezvous with the International Space Station in November 2022. The jettisoned support equipment drifted safely away from the station and will eventually harmlessly burn up in the atmosphere with no chance for recontacting the space station.
ISS041-E-049099 (30 Sept. 2014) --- The International Space Station?s Canadarm2 and Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator (SPDM), carry the Rapidscat instrument assembly after removing it from the trunk of the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship (upper right), which is currently docked to the nadir port of the Harmony node. The Rapidscat was then maneuvered for attachment to the nadir adapter that is affixed to the station?s Columbus laboratory.
iss072e188838 (Nov. 9, 2024) --- The fine-tuned robotic hand, better known as Dextre, is attached to the Canadarm2 robotic arm and carries the CODEX experiment (center) after extracting the research hardware from the trunk of the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft. CODEX, a solar coronagraph installed on the International Space Station, will gather important information about the solar wind and how it forms. A coronagraph blocks out the bright light from the Sun to better see details in the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona.
iss066e125326 (Jan. 22, 2022) --- The SpaceX Cargo Dragon resupply ship, with its white pressurized capsule and dark solar panel-covered, unpressurized trunk, is pictured moments before undocking from the Harmony module's space-facing port on the International Space Station. Also seen on the capsule, are a set of Draco engines that help the spacecraft maneuver and orient itself in orbit.
The Hyperspectral Imager Suite (HISUI), a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) payload, arrives in its shipping container at the entrance to the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 25, 2019. The payload will be packed inside the external trunk of the SpaceX Dragon cargo module at Launch Complex 39A. HISUI will be delivered to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 19th Commercial Resupply Services mission for NASA in December 2019. HISUI is a spaceborne hyperspectral Earth Imaging System with a reflective telescope and two grating spectrometers.
ISS041-E-049091 (30 Sept. 2014) --- The International Space Station?s Canadarm2 and Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator (SPDM), carry the Rapidscat instrument assembly after removing it from the trunk of the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship, which is currently docked to the nadir port of the Harmony node. The Rapidscat was then maneuvered for attachment to the nadir adapter that is affixed to the station?s Columbus laboratory.
iss068e044174 (Jan. 31, 2023) --- The Canadarm2 robotic arm is pictured extending away from the International Space Station after jettisoning flight support equipment toward the Earth's atmosphere. The flight hardware secured a pair of roll-out solar arrays inside the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship’s trunk during its ascent to orbit and rendezvous with the space station in November 2022. The jettisoned support equipment drifted safely away from the station and will eventually harmlessly burn up in the atmosphere with no chance for recontacting the space station.
The Hyperspectral Imager Suite (HISUI), a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) payload, arrives in its shipping container at the entrance to the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 25, 2019. The payload will packed inside the external trunk of the SpaceX Dragon cargo module at Launch Complex 39A. HISUI will be delivered to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 19th Commercial Resupply Services mission for NASA in December 2019. HISUI is a spaceborne hyperspectral Earth Imaging System with a reflective telescope and two grating spectrometers.
iss067e191368 (July 24, 2022) --- At right, the Canadarm2 robotic arm maneuvers the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation, or EMIT, after retrieving it from the trunk of the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft. EMIT was installed on ExPRESS Logistics Carrier-1 (top center) on the port side of the International Space Station's truss structure. The station's main solar arrays are also seen extending from the port truss segment. EMIT is a mineral dust source observation experiment that explores the Earth’s mineral dust cycle.
The first two of six new solar arrays for the International Space Station have been loaded into Dragon’s unpressurized spacecraft trunk. SpaceX will deliver them to the orbiting laboratory during its next cargo resupply mission, targeted for June 3 at 1:29pm. The arrays will provide additional electrical power for the numerous research and science investigations conducted every day, as well as the continued operations of the station. Spacewalking astronauts will install the two new arrays in two spacewalks that will take place in June.
Jose “Manny” Rodriguez, technical engineer at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, secures a trunk onboard the G-IV aircraft on March 18, 2025. As the newest member of NASA Armstrong’s airborne science fleet, the G-IV was sent to Avenger Aerospace Solutions in Cartersville, Georgia, for modifications that will optimize the G-IV’s performance as a research aircraft.
The Hyperspectral Imager Suite (HISUI), a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) payload, arrives in its shipping container at the entrance to the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 25, 2019. The payload will be packed inside the external trunk of the SpaceX Dragon cargo module at Launch Complex 39A. HISUI will be delivered to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 19th Commercial Resupply Services mission for NASA in December 2019. HISUI is a spaceborne hyperspectral Earth Imaging System with a reflective telescope and two grating spectrometers.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- Space Shuttle Endeavour is viewed between two tree trunks in this photo during the Shuttle's rollout to Launch Pad 39A for launch of mission STS-99. Named the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), it involves an international project spearheaded by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency and NASA, with participation of the German Aerospace Center DLR. The SRTM consists of a specially modified radar system that will gather data for the most accurate and complete topographic map of the Earth's surface that has ever been assembled
iss062e113107 (March 25, 2020) --- The Canadarm2 robotic arm and Dextre, the fine-tuned robotic hand, are remotely controlled on Earth to extract Bartolomeo from the pressurized trunk of the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship. Bartolomeo is a European Space Agency science payload system that will enable numerous external science experiments to be conducted and controlled outside the space station.
The Hyperspectral Imager Suite (HISUI), a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) payload, is lifted off of its transporter in its shipping container at the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 25, 2019. The payload will be packed inside the external trunk of the SpaceX Dragon cargo module at Launch Complex 39A. HISUI will be delivered to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 19th Commercial Resupply Services mission for NASA in December 2019. HISUI is a spaceborne hyperspectral Earth Imaging System with a reflective telescope and two grating spectrometers.
ISS039-E-016800 (30 April 2014) --- Backdropped against a cloudy portion of Earth, the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator -- the Canadian Space Agency’s robotic “handyman” AKA Dextre -- and the Canadarm2 or Space Station Remote Manipulator System arm take a "rest" after completing a task 225 miles above the home planet. Robotic ground controllers used the Canadarm2 and Dextre to remove the High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) payload from the trunk of the SpaceX Dragon, seen in the top portion of the photo. HDEV was installed on the nadir adapter on the European Space Agency's Columbus exposed facility (out of frame).
iss068e043860 (Jan. 30, 2023) --- The Canadarm2 robotic arm is pictured extending away from the International Space Station with flight support equipment gripped in its leading end effector before being jettisoned toward the Earth's atmosphere. The flight hardware secured a pair of roll-out solar arrays inside the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship’s trunk during its ascent to orbit and rendezvous with the space station in November 2022. The jettisoned support equipment drifted safely away from the station and will eventually harmlessly burn up in the atmosphere with no chance for recontacting the space station.
iss041e047260 (9/29/2014) --- A view of the removal of the RapidScat Nadir Adapter from the SpaceX-4 Dragon trunk and installation of the adapter onto the Columbus Exposed Facility Unit (EFU). ISS-RapidScat is a space-based scatterometer that replaces the inoperable SeaWinds payload aboard the QuickSCAT satellite. Scatterometers are radar instruments that measure wind speed and direction over the ocean, and are useful for weather forecasting, hurricane monitoring, and observations of large-scale climate phenomena such as El Niño. The ISS RapidScat instrument enhances measurements from other international scatterometers by cross-checking their data, and demonstrates a unique way to replace an instrument aboard an aging satellite. External Caption
The Hyperspectral Imager Suite (HISUI), a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) payload, arrives in its shipping container on a flatbed truck at the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 25, 2019. The payload will be packed inside the external trunk of the SpaceX Dragon cargo module at Launch Complex 39A. HISUI will be delivered to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 19th Commercial Resupply Services mission for NASA in December 2019. HISUI is a spaceborne hyperspectral Earth Imaging System with a reflective telescope and two grating spectrometers.
The Nanoracks Bishop Airlock is packed in the Dragon spacecraft’s trunk on Oct. 12, 2020, inside SpaceX’s processing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for its ride to the International Space Station aboard the company’s 21st Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-21) mission. The first commercially funded airlock for the orbiting laboratory, it will provide payload hosting, robotics testing, satellite deployment, serve as an outside toolbox for station crew spacewalks, and more. CRS-21 is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A.
The first commercially funded airlock for the International Space Station is packed in the Cargo Dragon spacecraft’s trunk in October 2020 for its ride to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 21st Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-21) mission. The airlock will provide payload hosting, robotics testing, and satellite deployment, and also will serve as an outside toolbox for crew members conducting spacewalks. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Cargo Dragon, lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:17 a.m. EST on Dec. 6, 2020.
The Hyperspectral Imager Suite (HISUI), a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) payload, arrives in its shipping container on a flatbed truck at the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Oct. 25, 2019. The payload will be packed inside the external trunk of the SpaceX Dragon cargo module at Launch Complex 39A. HISUI will be delivered to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 19th Commercial Resupply Services mission for NASA in December 2019. HISUI is a spaceborne hyperspectral Earth Imaging System with a reflective telescope and two grating spectrometers.
The Nanoracks Bishop Airlock is packed in the Dragon spacecraft’s trunk on Oct. 12, 2020, inside SpaceX’s processing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for its ride to the International Space Station aboard the company’s 21st Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-21) mission. The first commercially funded airlock for the orbiting laboratory, it will provide payload hosting, robotics testing, satellite deployment, serve as an outside toolbox for station crew spacewalks, and more. CRS-21 is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A.
This image from NASA Terra spacecraft shows Prince Patrick Island, which is located in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and is the westernmost Elizabeth Island in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The island is underlain by sedimentary rocks, cut by still-active faults. The streams follow a dendritic drainage system: there are many contributing streams (analogous to the twigs of a tree), which are then joined together into the tributaries of the main river (the branches and the trunk of the tree, respectively). They develop where the river channel follows the slope of the terrain. The image covers an area of 22 by 27 km, was acquired July 2, 2011, and is located at 76.9 degrees north, 118.9 degrees west. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19222
A transportation container carrying NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3, or OCO-3, payload is moved to a truck for its transport from the Space Station Processing Facility high bay at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the SpaceX facility on March 18, 2019. The OCO-3 payload will be stowed in the trunk of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, where it will launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on the company’s 17th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station. Launch is scheduled for April 25, 2019, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Once the payload reaches the station, it will be removed from Dragon and robotically installed on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory’s Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility Unit, where it will measure and map carbon dioxide from space to provide further understanding of the relationship between carbon and climate.
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 5:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018. On the company’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, Dragon is filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support several science and research investigations that will occur during Expedition 56. The spacecraft’s unpressurized trunk is carrying a Canadian-built Latching End Effector, or LEE. This new LEE will replace a failed unit astronauts removed during a series of spacewalks in the fall of 2017. Each end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm has an identical LEE, and they are used as the “hands” that grapple payloads and visiting cargo spaceships.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrives at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Chris Rhodes
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 5:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018. On the company’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, Dragon is filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support several science and research investigations that will occur during Expedition 56. The spacecraft’s unpressurized trunk is carrying a Canadian-built Latching End Effector, or LEE. This new LEE will replace a failed unit astronauts removed during a series of spacewalks in the fall of 2017. Each end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm has an identical LEE, and they are used as the “hands” that grapple payloads and visiting cargo spaceships.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrives at Launch Complex-40's horizontal processing hangar. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrives at Launch Complex-40's horizontal processing hangar. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder
Technicians secure the Space Test Program-Houston 6 (STP-H6) inside a transport truck at the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 19, 2019. The payload will be moved to the SpaceX facility where it will be stowed in the trunk of the Dragon spacecraft for delivery to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 17th Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-17) for NASA. STP-H6 is an x-ray communication investigation that will be used to perform a space-based demonstration of a new technology for generating beams of modulated x-rays. This technology may be useful for providing efficient communication to deep space probes, or communicating with hypersonic vehicles where plasma sheaths prevent traditional radio communications. CRS-17 is scheduled to launch from Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in late April.
NASA and SpaceX launched the 28th commercial resupply mission of the Cargo Dragon from Launch Complex 39A at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff occurred at 11:47 a.m. EDT, June 5, 2023. SpaceX's Dragon will deliver new science investigations, food, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station for the crew, including the next pair of IROSAs (International Space Station Roll Out Solar Arrays). These solar panels, which roll out using stored kinetic energy, will expand the energy-production capabilities of the space station. This will be the third set launching in the SpaceX Dragon's trunk, and once installed, will help provide a 20% to 30% increase in power for space station research and operations.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, shows off its Launch Control Center during a media tour at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, or CCAFS, in Florida. In December 2010, SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft from CCAFS's Launch Complex 40. The Dragon capsule went through several maneuvers before it re-entered the atmosphere and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about 500 miles west of the coast of Mexico. That was the first demonstration flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which will provide cargo flights to the International Space Station in the future. The company is preparing for another launch in late 2011, in which the Dragon spacecraft and trunk will fly close to the space station so the station’s robotic arm can grab the spacecraft and bring it in for a docking. Photo credit: NASA/Frankie Martin
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, displays a mock-up of its Dragon capsule during a media tour at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, or CCAFS, in Florida. In December 2010, SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft from CCAFS's Launch Complex 40. The Dragon capsule went through several maneuvers before it re-entered the atmosphere and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about 500 miles west of the coast of Mexico. That was the first demonstration flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which will provide cargo flights to the International Space Station in the future. The company is preparing for another launch in late 2011, in which the Dragon spacecraft and trunk will fly close to the space station so the station’s robotic arm can grab the spacecraft and bring it in for a docking. Photo credit: NASA/Frankie Martin
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 5:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018. On the company’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, Dragon is filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support several science and research investigations that will occur during Expedition 56. The spacecraft’s unpressurized trunk is carrying a Canadian-built Latching End Effector, or LEE. This new LEE will replace a failed unit astronauts removed during a series of spacewalks in the fall of 2017. Each end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm has an identical LEE, and they are used as the “hands” that grapple payloads and visiting cargo spaceships.
The Space Test Program-Houston 6 (STP-H6) payload is being moved out of the Space Station Processing Facility high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 19, 2019. The payload will be moved to the SpaceX facility where it will be stowed in the trunk of the Dragon spacecraft for delivery to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 17th Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-17) for NASA. STP-H6 is an x-ray communication investigation that will be used to perform a space-based demonstration of a new technology for generating beams of modulated x-rays. This technology may be useful for providing efficient communication to deep space probes, or communicating with hypersonic vehicles where plasma sheaths prevent traditional radio communications. CRS-17 is scheduled to launch from Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in late April.
NASA and SpaceX launched the 28th commercial resupply mission of the Cargo Dragon from Launch Complex 39A at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff occurred at 11:47 a.m. EDT, June 5, 2023. SpaceX's Dragon will deliver new science investigations, food, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station for the crew, including the next pair of IROSAs (International Space Station Roll Out Solar Arrays). These solar panels, which roll out using stored kinetic energy, will expand the energy-production capabilities of the space station. This will be the third set launching in the SpaceX Dragon's trunk, and once installed, will help provide a 20% to 30% increase in power for space station research and operations.
The Space Test Program-Houston 6 (STP-H6) payload is being moved out of the Space Station Processing Facility high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 19, 2019. The payload will be moved to the SpaceX facility where it will be stowed in the trunk of the Dragon spacecraft for delivery to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 17th Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-17) for NASA. STP-H6 is an x-ray communication investigation that will be used to perform a space-based demonstration of a new technology for generating beams of modulated x-rays. This technology may be useful for providing efficient communication to deep space probes, or communicating with hypersonic vehicles where plasma sheaths prevent traditional radio communications. CRS-17 is scheduled to launch from Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in late April.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrives at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Chris Rhodes
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrives at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Chris Rhodes
NASA and SpaceX launched the 28th commercial resupply mission of the Cargo Dragon from Launch Complex 39A at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff occurred at 11:47 a.m. EDT, June 5, 2023. SpaceX's Dragon will deliver new science investigations, food, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station for the crew, including the next pair of IROSAs (International Space Station Roll Out Solar Arrays). These solar panels, which roll out using stored kinetic energy, will expand the energy-production capabilities of the space station. This will be the third set launching in the SpaceX Dragon's trunk, and once installed, will help provide a 20% to 30% increase in power for space station research and operations.
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 5:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018. On the company’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, Dragon is filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support several science and research investigations that will occur during Expedition 56. The spacecraft’s unpressurized trunk is carrying a Canadian-built Latching End Effector, or LEE. This new LEE will replace a failed unit astronauts removed during a series of spacewalks in the fall of 2017. Each end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm has an identical LEE, and they are used as the “hands” that grapple payloads and visiting cargo spaceships.
NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3, or OCO-3, sits in a transportation container at the Space Station Processing Facility high bay at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida prior to its move to the SpaceX facility on March 18, 2019. The OCO-3 payload will be stowed in the trunk of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, where it will launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on the company’s 17th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station. Launch is scheduled for April 25, 2019, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Once the payload reaches the station, it will be removed from Dragon and robotically installed on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory’s Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility Unit, where it will measure and map carbon dioxide from space to provide further understanding of the relationship between carbon and climate.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrives at Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, displays a mock-up of its Dragon capsule during a media tour at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, or CCAFS, in Florida. In December 2010, SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft from CCAFS's Launch Complex 40. The Dragon capsule went through several maneuvers before it re-entered the atmosphere and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about 500 miles west of the coast of Mexico. That was the first demonstration flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which will provide cargo flights to the International Space Station in the future. The company is preparing for another launch in late 2011, in which the Dragon spacecraft and trunk will fly close to the space station so the station’s robotic arm can grab the spacecraft and bring it in for a docking. Photo credit: NASA/Frankie Martin
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first stage of the SpaceX COTS-2 Falcon 9 rocket is being moved into a SpaceX hangar at Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 5:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018. On the company’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, Dragon is filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support several science and research investigations that will occur during Expedition 56. The spacecraft’s unpressurized trunk is carrying a Canadian-built Latching End Effector, or LEE. This new LEE will replace a failed unit astronauts removed during a series of spacewalks in the fall of 2017. Each end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm has an identical LEE, and they are used as the “hands” that grapple payloads and visiting cargo spaceships.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrives at Launch Complex-40's horizontal processing hangar. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrives at Launch Complex-40's horizontal processing hangar. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 5:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018. On the company’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, Dragon is filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support several science and research investigations that will occur during Expedition 56. The spacecraft’s unpressurized trunk is carrying a Canadian-built Latching End Effector, or LEE. This new LEE will replace a failed unit astronauts removed during a series of spacewalks in the fall of 2017. Each end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm has an identical LEE, and they are used as the “hands” that grapple payloads and visiting cargo spaceships.
The Space Test Program-Houston 6 (STP-H6) payload is inside the Space Station Processing Facility high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 19, 2019. It is being prepared for its move to the SpaceX facility where it will be will be stowed in the trunk of the Dragon spacecraft for delivery to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 17th Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-17) for NASA. STP-H6 is an x-ray communication investigation that will be used to perform a space-based demonstration of a new technology for generating beams of modulated x-rays. This technology may be useful for providing efficient communication to deep space probes, or communicating with hypersonic vehicles where plasma sheaths prevent traditional radio communications. CRS-17 is scheduled to launch from Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in late April.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first stage of the SpaceX COTS-2 Falcon 9 rocket is being moved into a SpaceX hangar at Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 5:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018. On the company’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, Dragon is filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support several science and research investigations that will occur during Expedition 56. The spacecraft’s unpressurized trunk is carrying a Canadian-built Latching End Effector, or LEE. This new LEE will replace a failed unit astronauts removed during a series of spacewalks in the fall of 2017. Each end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm has an identical LEE, and they are used as the “hands” that grapple payloads and visiting cargo spaceships.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrives at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Chris Rhodes
The Space Test Program-Houston 6 (STP-H6) payload is inside the Space Station Processing Facility high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 19, 2019. It is being prepared for its move to the SpaceX facility where it will be will be stowed in the trunk of the Dragon spacecraft for delivery to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s 17th Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-17) for NASA. STP-H6 is an x-ray communication investigation that will be used to perform a space-based demonstration of a new technology for generating beams of modulated x-rays. This technology may be useful for providing efficient communication to deep space probes, or communicating with hypersonic vehicles where plasma sheaths prevent traditional radio communications. CRS-17 is scheduled to launch from Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in late April.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first stage of the SpaceX COTS-2 Falcon 9 rocket is being moved into a SpaceX hangar at Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
Kevin Mark, Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO-3) purge engineer with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, secures a separate fixture of OCO-3, stored apart from its payload container, on the truck transporting it from the Space Station Processing Facility high bay at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the SpaceX facility on March 18, 2019. The OCO-3 payload will be stowed in the trunk of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, where it will launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on the company’s 17th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station. Launch is scheduled for April 25, 2019, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Once the payload reaches the station, it will be removed from Dragon and robotically installed on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory’s Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility Unit, where it will measure and map carbon dioxide from space to provide further understanding of the relationship between carbon and climate.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, opens its doors for a media tour of its Launch Control Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, or CCAFS, in Florida. In December 2010, SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft from CCAFS's Launch Complex 40. The Dragon capsule went through several maneuvers before it re-entered the atmosphere and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about 500 miles west of the coast of Mexico. That was the first demonstration flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which will provide cargo flights to the International Space Station in the future. The company is preparing for another launch in late 2011, in which the Dragon spacecraft and trunk will fly close to the space station so the station’s robotic arm can grab the spacecraft and bring it in for a docking. Photo credit: NASA/Frankie Martin
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrives at Launch Complex-40's horizontal processing hangar. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first stage of the SpaceX COTS-2 Falcon 9 rocket is being moved into a SpaceX hangar at Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
A forklift moves the transportation container carrying NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3, or OCO-3, payload to a truck for its move from the Space Station Processing Facility high bay at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the SpaceX facility on March 18, 2019. The OCO-3 payload will be stowed in the trunk of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, where it will launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on the company’s 17th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station. Launch is scheduled for April 25, 2019, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Once the payload reaches the station, it will be removed from Dragon and robotically installed on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory’s Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility Unit, where it will measure and map carbon dioxide from space to provide further understanding of the relationship between carbon and climate.
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 5:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018. On the company’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, Dragon is filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support several science and research investigations that will occur during Expedition 56. The spacecraft’s unpressurized trunk is carrying a Canadian-built Latching End Effector, or LEE. This new LEE will replace a failed unit astronauts removed during a series of spacewalks in the fall of 2017. Each end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm has an identical LEE, and they are used as the “hands” that grapple payloads and visiting cargo spaceships.
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 5:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018. On the company’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, Dragon is filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support several science and research investigations that will occur during Expedition 56. The spacecraft’s unpressurized trunk is carrying a Canadian-built Latching End Effector, or LEE. This new LEE will replace a failed unit astronauts removed during a series of spacewalks in the fall of 2017. Each end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm has an identical LEE, and they are used as the “hands” that grapple payloads and visiting cargo spaceships.
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 5:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018. On the company’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, Dragon is filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support several science and research investigations that will occur during Expedition 56. The spacecraft’s unpressurized trunk is carrying a Canadian-built Latching End Effector, or LEE. This new LEE will replace a failed unit astronauts removed during a series of spacewalks in the fall of 2017. Each end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm has an identical LEE, and they are used as the “hands” that grapple payloads and visiting cargo spaceships.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrives at Launch Complex-40's horizontal processing hangar. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 5:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018. On the company’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, Dragon is filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support several science and research investigations that will occur during Expedition 56. The spacecraft’s unpressurized trunk is carrying a Canadian-built Latching End Effector, or LEE. This new LEE will replace a failed unit astronauts removed during a series of spacewalks in the fall of 2017. Each end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm has an identical LEE, and they are used as the “hands” that grapple payloads and visiting cargo spaceships.
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 5:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018. On the company’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, Dragon is filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support several science and research investigations that will occur during Expedition 56. The spacecraft’s unpressurized trunk is carrying a Canadian-built Latching End Effector, or LEE. This new LEE will replace a failed unit astronauts removed during a series of spacewalks in the fall of 2017. Each end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm has an identical LEE, and they are used as the “hands” that grapple payloads and visiting cargo spaceships.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The first stage of the SpaceX COTS-2 Falcon 9 rocket is being transported to a SpaceX hangar at Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA_Jack Pfaller
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 5:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018. On the company’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, Dragon is filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support several science and research investigations that will occur during Expedition 56. The spacecraft’s unpressurized trunk is carrying a Canadian-built Latching End Effector, or LEE. This new LEE will replace a failed unit astronauts removed during a series of spacewalks in the fall of 2017. Each end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm has an identical LEE, and they are used as the “hands” that grapple payloads and visiting cargo spaceships.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrives at Launch Complex-40's horizontal processing hangar. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder
The two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying the SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 5:42 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 29, 2018. On the company’s 15th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station, Dragon is filled with supplies and payloads, including critical materials to support several science and research investigations that will occur during Expedition 56. The spacecraft’s unpressurized trunk is carrying a Canadian-built Latching End Effector, or LEE. This new LEE will replace a failed unit astronauts removed during a series of spacewalks in the fall of 2017. Each end of the Canadarm2 robotic arm has an identical LEE, and they are used as the “hands” that grapple payloads and visiting cargo spaceships.
Workers move NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3, or OCO-3, payload container out of the Space Station Processing Facility high bay at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to board a truck that will transport it to the SpaceX facility on March 18, 2019. The OCO-3 payload will be stowed in the trunk of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, where it will launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on the company’s 17th Commercial Resupply Services mission the International Space Station. Launch is scheduled for April 25, 2019, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Once the payload reaches the station, it will be removed from Dragon and robotically installed on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory’s Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility Unit, where it will measure and map carbon dioxide from space to provide further understanding of the relationship between carbon and climate.
NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3, or OCO-3, payload sits in a transportation container at the Space Station Processing Facility high bay at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for its move to the SpaceX facility on March 18, 2019. The OCO-3 payload will be stowed in the trunk of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, where it will launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on the company’s 17th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station. Launch is scheduled for April 25, 2019, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Once the payload reaches the station, it will be removed from Dragon and robotically installed on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory’s Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility Unit, where it will measure and map carbon dioxide from space to provide further understanding of the relationship between carbon and climate.
A transportation container carrying NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3, or OCO-3, payload is moved to a truck for transport from the Space Station Processing Facility high bay at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the SpaceX facility on March 18, 2019. The OCO-3 payload will be stowed in the trunk of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, where it will launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on the company’s 17th Commercial Resupply Services mission to the International Space Station. Launch is scheduled for April 25, 2019, from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Once the payload reaches the station, it will be removed from Dragon and robotically installed on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory’s Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility Unit, where it will measure and map carbon dioxide from space to provide further understanding of the relationship between carbon and climate.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket arrives at Launch Complex-40's horizontal processing hangar. Once assembled, it will be a two-stage fully integrated launch vehicle, consisting of a first stage powered by nine SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C engines, a second stage, an interstage, an unpressurized trunk and the Dragon spacecraft qualification unit. SpaceX was awarded procurement for three demonstration flights under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program managed by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. A subsequent contract for Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, was awarded in late 2008 to resupply the International Space Station. The SpaceX CRS contract provides for 12 missions to resupply the station from 2011 through 2015. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder